Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
Oct 25, 2024, 9:21 PM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:9-12
Thought
It sounds like Paul is saying that a next step up in their love for the brethren is to lead a quiet life, minding their own business and working with their hands, so that they would behave correctly towards outsiders and not be in any need. He commends them for their love of the brethren, that they are taught by God to love one another, so it's not like they have a problem in this area. They care not just for their own locally, but throughout the region.
Oct 24, 2024, 9:22 PM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:4-6
Thought
The Gospel is a hard thing to accept. It can provoke a hostile reaction almost as often as it draws some to believe it. It is so offensive to many that those who preach it can be tempted to distort it in order to please men rather than preach the truth of it in order to please God. That is so not my experience that I wonder if I have been preaching the true Gospel?
Oct 23, 2024, 9:24 PM
Passage Read: Colossians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:22-25
Thought
This chapter begins with a command to set our hearts on things above, not on earthly things, to seek the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. But then here is this command to slaves, that they obey their earthly masters with sincerity of heart, doing all their work (earthly things, seldom if ever connected to things above) as if serving the Lord. Isn't that a distraction from seeking things above? The way we serve and the reason we serve makes a distinction.
Oct 22, 2024, 9:26 PM
Passage Read: Colossians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:16-18
Thought
I am not to allow anyone to judge me in regards to food or drink or a festival or holy day, including the Sabbath. These things all were important at one time, separating the Israelites from the surrounding peoples, making them distinct and unique, but what really sets us apart is Christ Himself! So no one should have any power over me, I should fear no one who thinks I'm bad for not observing these rules and others like them.
Oct 21, 2024, 9:27 PM
Passage Read: Philippians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:15-16
Thought
The NASB chooses the word "perfect" to translate Paul's idea here: "As many as are perfect." As many as are mature or complete in Christ, as many as have attained perfection according to the standard preached in Christ. Anyone who has attained a completeness in their pursuit of Christ, he encourages to have the same attitude as he does, of continuously pressing on, not plateauing or being content in their spiritual growth or maturity, but continually pressing on toward the goal of knowing Christ better and reaching His presence in heaven. And if there is a matter about which they think differently, God will make it clear to them.
Oct 20, 2024, 9:29 PM
Passage Read: Philippians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:14-16
Thought
This is a letter of thanks for a gift sent through one of their number, Epaphroditus, but in it, Paul has some exhortations, including a call for humility and this instruction to do all things without grumbling or disputing, which is actually an expression of humility. These are the Macedonians, whom elsewhere Paul has praised for their generosity in spite of their poverty. These people seem to be such models of Christian life and faith. Yet Paul still includes these commands.
Oct 19, 2024, 6:58 AM
Passage Read: Ephesians 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:27-30
Thought
Jesus loves the Church so much that He is always working at making her as beautiful to Himself as possible! He began with the sacrifice that paid for her sin, cleansing her from the stain of former sin and gifting her everything she needed for life and godliness. But He also continues in teaching and training her so that she becomes all-glorious on the day He receives her to Himself at the end of this age.
Oct 18, 2024, 7:00 AM
Passage Read: Ephesians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:13-15
Thought
Jesus Christ Himself is the goal and the likeness into which we all should be growing. And there is only one Jesus, so there cannot be multiple likenesses to which men attain. Yet Paul makes clear here that there are winds of doctrine and deceitful men who use trickery and deceitful scheming to lead believers astray, who confuse the picture.
Oct 17, 2024, 7:01 AM
Passage Read: Ephesians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:1-3
Thought
We all formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air who is still working in those who disobey the Lord. We all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of our flesh and mind, being by nature objects of wrath. But when God redeemed us through Christ, we broke from these.
Oct 16, 2024, 7:02 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:18-24
Thought
The war we're in is not a war between the Law and the Spirit, but between the flesh and the Spirit, and the battleground is our moral behavior. It is not a war of circumcision or holy days or animal sacrifices, but one of godly or selfish behavior. Fulfilling the material requirements of the law will not save, but rather will separate us from Christ.